Ukraine sets Euro-2012 accommodation price record

UEFA President Michel Platini’s recent statement that bandits and swindlers are undermining Ukraine’s Euro-2012 preparations by pushing accommodation prices up to exorbitant levels; that hotels in Kyiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Lviv, the four Ukrainian host cities, have hiked prices in some cases more than 10-fold. UEFA says there will be over 1.4 million soccer fans in Ukraine. Even accredited journalists keep asking Platini for reasonable accommodation prices in Ukraine, which explains his critical attitude to official Kyiv as it keeps violating contractual terms and conditions.

Needless to say, the situation is unique. For the first time in UEFA history the soccer finals will be hosted by Central and Eastern European countries –particularly Kyiv – so organizational ups and downs, as well as goofs, are inevitable. On the other hand, critique from Switzerland – a small European country that, together with Austria, hosted Euro-2008 – is proof that Euro-2012 will be held on a considerably broader range, as evidenced by a news conference held at the Geneva Club, involving UEFA Operations Director Martin Kallen whose progress report, concerning Poland and Ukraine, was important, considering his experience of organizing Euro-2004 and Euro-2008. He said that soccer is very popular in both countries, that a great deal of work had been done to accommodate the soccer finals, that there were modern-equipped stadiums, including the National Stadium of Warsaw seating 55,000, along with those in Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Poznan, each seating 40,000. The Olympic Stadium in Kyiv seats 60,000 and the Donbas Arena Stadium, built in 2009 and equipped for Donetsk’s Shakhtar soccer team, seats 50,000. Martin Kallen described this stadium as the best-equipped one in Europe, probably second to the one in Munich.

European soccer championships have long surpassed the continent’s borders in terms of publicity. This time each game will be watched by 150 million fans. UEFA’s special website had received over 12 million applications and issued 1,400,000 tickets, said Martin Kallen.

There will be heavy air traffic over Poland and Ukraine during the Euro-2012 soccer games. The airports at Warsaw and Kyiv have undergone major repair to meet the payload challenge. A new airport was ceremoniously opened in Lviv. Two international airports will start functioning in Kyiv (Boryspil) and Donetsk in mid-May 2012. Borys Kolesnikov, Yanukovych’s cabinet member tasked with putting the Euro-2012 infrastructure in order, stated proudly in an interview with a group of French journalists: “This is the only country that has built four international airports within a year-and-a-half timeframe.”

Thirteen out of the Euro-2012 sixteen national soccer teams will be accommodated by Poland. Ukraine will host three teams, including its national one, probably because of the hiked hotel prices. Martin Kallen says the soccer teams will be accommodated as chosen by their coaches, long before the casting of lots. The German team wanted Donetsk, but the hotels lacked the European standard, so the team and its retinue chose Gdansk. The Danish team wanted Kharkiv, but the coach said they had to train not far from a sea, so they ended up accommodated by Kolobrzeg, a Polish resort near the Baltic Sea, so they will have to board a 1,700 km flight to Kyiv to play their first game… The French team is now at what Kallen describes as one of Europe’s best sports facilities in Donetsk.

Euro-2012 tickets sell starting at €30.00. A reasonable price for anyone in Europe, but not in Ukraine, because it amounts to some 300 hryvnias. Also, considering the stadiums’ seating capacity, there will be big street screens allowing the fans to watch the games online.

In Kyiv, the main thoroughfare, Khreshchatyk Street, also Instytutska and Khmelnytsky streets will be kept as pedestrian areas from May 28 until July 7, in view of the soccer fans’ activity areas; there will be shopping centers, kiosks, first-aid/police stations, and a free hotline in case of fire or public unrest. Compared to Euro-2008, Poland and Ukraine offer a record-setting area for the soccer fans: Defilade Square in Warsaw can accommodate 100,000 fans. Kyiv’s Maidan can accommodate about 70,000 fans. Martin Kallen acknowledged the volunteers’ unprecedented activities.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a month ago that his country would have to pay 30.6 billion dollars for Euro-2012. Poland, being a member of the European Union, will be in a better position compared to Ukraine. It has been receiving money from Brussels to upgrade its pertinent infrastructures. Polish media point to some 40 percent of such spending being provided for by private investments. Ukraine’s official Euro-2012 program envisages over 15 billion dollars in terms of central budget and private/corporate investments. Euro-2008 cost Austria and Switzerland about one billion euros, so Poland and Ukraine are setting a record soccer championship cost, 40 times that of Euro-2008.

Countries with advanced infrastructures need considerably less budget appropriations for such major sports events. Euro-2008 was attended by some one million fans and the host countries received about 500 million euros. Whether Poland and Ukraine will make up for at least 50 percent of Euro-2012 expenses is anyone’s guess, depending on the performance and further national progress.

Billions of scarce hryvnias have been spent from the budget pocket for the Euro-2012 preparations but the real value of the brand “Ukraine” still can’t keep up with its neighbor on the scoreboard

OVERPRICED HOTEL ROOMS MEAN STRANDED INVESTMENTS

Who will host foreign fans annoyed with the overpriced rooms in Ukrainian hotels? More than a half of all the soccer fans want to return home by charter right after a match…

The task for settling things with prices for rooms in Ukrainian hotels during the Euro-2012 is still a not realized penalty in devastating losing in the informational field. Another missed chance to earn back the money of taxpayers spent on the preparations for the championship.

President Viktor Yanukovych instructed Deputy Prime Minister of Infrastructure Borys Kolesnikov and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Petro Poroshenko to bring the prices for hotel rooms for fans of the Euro-2012 to the economically justified level and to report on measures taken before May 1. The reason for that is the meeting with French journalists. The ground is the tax break that the hotel owners received for five years.

Right after the draw was held Ukrainians began “to strike iron without walking away from the cash register.” Thus, the prices were “forged” not in a childish naive way but according to grown up calculations. The headlines like “Ukraine will make more money than Poland” appeared everywhere. Why? The way the groups for finals formed seemed in favor of Ukraine. Polish cities will have fans from countries that have suffered from economic crisis. Thus, the predictions for earning more on tourists were more promising for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Germany, France, England, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, and Portugal are coming to Ukraine. It is no secret for anyone already that only French and Swiss teams “have reached the destination” and now it’s time for price confusion with fans. “Now there is an issue of accommodating guests. The prices are extremely high. It somehow spoils the image of the country that hosts the tournament,” said Martin Kallen, Operational Director of the European Football Union (UEFA). Meanwhile, Michel Platini called the situation with prices for hotel rooms in Poland normal. Tickets sales are closed but the predictions made four years ago for Ukraine failed to materialize. Tickets for matches that will be held in Poland were bought more willingly.

ACCOUNTING CHAMBER OF EUROPEAN MEDIA

The epicenter of another information tsunami which overwhelmed Europe confused with Ukrainian “barbarity” were the printed media that published price comparison for accommodation in the Euro-2012 host countries. For example, Belgian DeMorgen suggests the following way to solve the problem: “Hotel room in Kyiv (average price is 247 euros) is twice as expensive as a room in Warsaw (111 euros). Spot in camping in the Ukraine capital costs over 40 euros per night which equals the price for a night spent in a small hotel in the Polish capital.”

Meanwhile, the Austrian newspaper Presse published more massive calculations and is fueling the fire of discontent with the information about the price rate growth in hotels in 85 times. According to their information, the night of semi-final will cost 3,600 euros, an apartment in Kharkiv that used to be priced 50 euros will cost 2,000 euros per day, and the rent of a camping spot in Kyiv during the Euro-2012 will require nearly 15,000 hryvnias for three weeks.

At the website booking.com you can see the compliance of the above calculations with the harsh realities for yourself. For example, during the championship you can book a bed for 40 euros per night, one bedroom suite – for 1,090 euros, two bedroom suites – for 909 euros, and semilux room – for 1,818 euros. However, you can also find standard room for 254 euros (95 in April) and even a suite for 309 (109 in April). Any interested tourist can find these simple figures himself. However, the question of “star” level of the hotels also remains open.

INFORMATION AND SHOCK THERAPY

Anger at the hotel rooms’ prices became the apogee of discontent with Ukraine whose picturesque landscapes have already suffered the critic attack from European mass media. The killing of stray animals, the lack of tourism infrastructure, nonsatisfactory ecological situation, police corruption, neglect of human rights – those are the real problems which could not be blocked with the positive information “pulses” from Ukraine. However, the alarming rate of HIV and tuberculosis spread, measles, and epidemic of rabies already require some panacea from the antisubstance in the European body called Ukraine. Is it necessary to remind about the warning made by Theo van Seggelen, secretary general of FIFPro, of the possible racially motivated offence of the leading soccer players of Europe?

No wonder if after saturation with similar disclaimer soccer fans will be heading from stadiums in cotton masks right on board of their charters. Against the background of such Ukraine staying in neighboring countries might seem to be like staying in paradise. Accordingly, the tourists’ money will stay there as well.

Dmytro Zaruba, the president of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants had to speak up to the irritated noise of the European mass media which was caused by the extremely expensive prices set in hotels. He noted that the publications were based on individual cases and there was no sample taken, required in such studies and there was no assessment made of the 10 times inflated prices.

Finally a voice came from Ukraine in the scandal provoked by an article published in German magazine Der Spiegel about hotels breaking contract with the tour operator TUI in order to set the higher prices for hotel rooms. The magazine reported that criminals with sticks and shields stormed several hotels in Kyiv in the recent few weeks to take further control over them. As a result, the contracts that were previously signed between those hotels and German travel company TUI for 14,000 rooms have been broken.

Hotel operators do not break the contracts with the tour operator TUI Ukraine for accommodating fans of Euro-2012 and the attempts to increase the cost of accommodation for the period of the championship have been settled as a result of the conducted negotiations. Andrii Stavenko, head of the TUI Ukraine agency for placing fans of Euro-2012 made this known.

However, “bandits and frauds” – the reason for the increase in hotel rooms’ prices mentioned by the UEFA’s president Michel Platini – has already been mentioned in all the leading media of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany in publications about the scandal with TUI.

Thus, while branding project for Ukraine and its cities will be discussed in conference halls the real value of such active as brand “Ukraine” will go down on the scoreboard of the participating countries… of course, in favor of other teams.